Essays, Reviews, Commentary, and Original Scholarship. A Film Blog that strives to be Art.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Brandon Peters dissects the 007 series part 09: The Man With the Golden Gun

With Skyfall dropping in theaters in just a few months, along with the 50th anniversary of the James Bond series, a close friend and fellow film nerd, Brandon Peters, has generously offered to do a comprehensive review of the entire 007 film franchise. Today is the eigth entry, with a full review of one of the very worst films in the franchise, The Man With the Golden Gun. I hope you enjoy what is a pretty massive feature leading up the November 9th release of Skyfall. I'll do my best to leave my two-cents out of it, give or take a few items I have up my sleeve (including a guest review from my wife as she sings the praises of her favorite 007 film, you won't believe what it is). But just because I'm stepping aside doesn't mean you should, as I can only hope for robust discussions in the comments section. Without further ado...

It is obvious that this contest cannot be
decided by our knowledge of the force, but by our skills with a lightsaber.

~Count Dooku

STATS

Kills: 1!

Bond
Girls: Mary Goodnight, Andrea Anders

Car: AMC Hornet

Locales: Hong Kong, Bangkok

Odd Villain
Trait: Scaramanga has a 3rd
nipple, Nick Nack is a dwarf

Song: “The Man with the Golden Gun” performed by
LuLu

Right on the
heels of Live and Let Die and a year
later, James Bond returned in The Man
With The Golden Gun (MWTGG). This
is the film almost killed the 007 franchise.
I’m sure down the road a reboot or additional film(s) would have
eventually been made, but this one almost stopped it dead in its tracks. A lot of the film’s plot feels very tired and
the movie isn’t very colorful regarding its performers and action. There’s not very much fun to have in this
one.

In tired
fashion, famed assassin Francisco Scaramanga has a lair on a remote island
harnessing energy to power a weaponized solar beam he hopes to sell to the
highest bidder. For thrills he also has
a fun house in which he invites known tough guys in to challenge them in a duel
to the death. His next target - James
Bond (whom he has a wax figure of).
James Bond is given the warning of the challenge by way of a golden
bullet and plans to get to Scaramanga first.
Bond is also in search of the Solex Agitator device which powers
Scaramanga’s beam.

Two films in
to Roger Moore’s ouvre and I still feel like this one was written for
Connery. Maybe Moore is not as light
hearted as I’m remembering. In this
film, he’s much more dark and intimidating than he even was in Live and Let
Die. Moore’s performance is fine, but he
doesn’t look to be having the fun he did in Live and Let Die. While his character doesn’t care for her, it
doesn’t look as if Moore cares for Mary Goodnight either. There’s a hilarious “I can’t believe I’m
watching this” moment where Bond is about to show Goodnight his Thunderballs
when Anders shows up at his door. He
takes Goodnight, hides her in the closet and sleeps with Anders while Goodnight
must sit and listen and watch. Its
hysterical!

Christopher
Lee is the only person in the film who seems to be really enjoying it. He really lights up with his scenes and gives
a committed performance. However, his
character is pretty lame and not too engaging.
If he was better on paper combining with the performance, I’d be loving
this villain and it would likely be a slightly better film. Scaramanga, the second villain in a
row to end their name with –anga, has a base just like all the other villains
and has a destructive beam just like Blofeld did in Diamonds are Forever. His fun house isn’t at all too thrilling
either. His henchman, Nick Nack is cute
for the first time you see him, but he’s not threatening at all and more weird and
annoying on screen than anything.

Britt Ekland
and her character attempt to destroy the film single handedly. They introduce us to her like we were
supposed to have a past relationship with her.
I had to look up exactly what she is to MI:6 aside from a buffoon. Her clumsiness isn’t all too funny and
assists a weak script in forcing many things in the weak script to happen. She looks good in a bikini though, and I’m
sure that’s why she got the job. Scaramanga’s
creepy, groping control guy apparently agrees.
Maud Adams isn’t as over the top and annoying, but she’s very
wooden. Her character is pretty
interesting and gets to have some cool moments, but the performance could have
been better. She’ll get another try in a
couple films though, as she’s the title character in Octopussy.

Tom Jones
was probably smiling when he heard the title song for this film. It makes “Thunderball” look like “Hey
Jude”. The score isn’t too much better
and there are some really bad choices in it.
During the highlight of the film, Bond doing an aerial twist over a
broken bridge in the AMC Hornet, the moment is silenced to enjoy the spectacle
and then a clownish stupid penny whistle sound goes off as the care crosses the
bridge. Even the best moment in the film
can’t get it completely right.

Since the
Blaxploitation experiment worked last time, they went for a different genre on
the rise. This time the choice was to
borrow from the kung fu genre. This
awkwardly shoehorned Bond waking up from being knocked out in a martial arts
school. This scene doesn’t have any
purpose and is just holding up an already boring film. It leads to a boat chase. I’m not saying we can’t have multiple boat
chases, but we just had a long one in the last film and it was done so much
better.

The film
grossed well, but was one of the lowest grossing of the series. It was a possible sign of waning and the loss
of interest. Longtime producer Harry
Saltzman sold his share after this film due to money issues. Also, more court trouble with Kevin McClory
held up any production that was to happen on the next film. The producers were thinking it might be time
to pack up the 007 franchise. On top of
it all, the film was not well received, and many a fan and critic seemed to be
getting stale on the Bond movies.

Truth be told, I fell asleep during this one. I
had to back track it and watch the second half again. It’s a pretty
uneventful film. I like the car jump,
the MI:6 ship headquarters is cool and Andrea Anders death scene, but those
aren’t much. Nothing here in this one is
really fresh or the same old schtick done well.
The Man With the Golden Gun isn’t a poorly made film, it’s just a stale, tired and lazy
film. This was Guy Hamilton’s third film in a row for the 007 franchise (he did four total) and last. He didn’t come back for Thunderball in 1965 because Goldfinger
wore him out. Now we have him doing three straight
films. It definitely shows. He was out of gas. Someone new or not burned out needed to step
in and take the reins. I would only tell
the hardcore Bond fan to see this one.
You can easily skip it and be just fine.
If you has insomnia, pop it in.
You’ll probably be cured by about the time Bond poses as
Scaramanga.

Because it is possible to re-edit essays after they have been posted, please feel free to alert me to any typos, grammar issues, and questions of factual accuracy, preferably by email and not in the comments section. And, also, since I often embed video clips, please let me know if any said clips are no longer functioning. Thanks.

About Me

The basics - 31 years old, married with two children, currently residing in Woodland Hills, CA. I am simply a longtime film critic and pundit of sorts, especially in the realm of box office. The main content will be film reviews, trailer reviews, essays, and box office analysis and comparison. I also syndicate myself at The Huffington Post, Valley Scene Magazine, and Open Salon.
I will update as often as my schedule allows. Yes, I'm on Facebook/Twitter/LinkIn, so feel free to find me there. All comments are appreciated, just be civil and try to keep a level discourse, as I will make every effort to do the same.